The final leg………… for now

Back in early February, after spending time in Sydney with family and friends for Christmas and the New Year and of course packing up our belongings, we drove the final part of our trip to our new home on the Gold Coast.

While in Sydney, we decided to buy a small removalist truck to get our stuff up to the GC. Instant convoy created right there…………

We squeezed our stuff in…………… just!

And headed on our way. Thanks to our families who have stored our things at their houses for almost 3 years 😬. First stop was Coffs Harbour just overnight and we kept on trucking (🤣) through to Byron Bay. We had 4 nights which turned into 6 nights here. Originally I had grand plans of visiting the beautiful beaches and markets and just enjoying some time to ourselves. You probably remember the heavy downpours in early February and this was not missed at Byron Bay. In fact 283mm was recorded in less than 24 hours. Most of this rain actually fell overnight 😮.

Flooded, deluge, severe weather, engulfed and drenching were all descriptions used in regards to the heaviest rainfall in almost 50 years. We didn’t let it stop us too much, although there was no lazing on the beach like I was hoping for. We did get to visit some lovely places and managed to avoid most of the rain. The farm was a highlight and even better we are now only a short drive away so could easily pop down for a day visit or a quick overnighter if we want (although Corona virus may have put these types of plans on hold for a bit).

I have wanted to visit crystal for some time now and finally got to go. I was not disappointed and to make it even better I convinced Joey to join me in a sound healing that was offered. I don’t think he was impressed with the whole experience as me, but it was nice that he joined me for a bit of the woo woo hippy type things that I do enjoy on occasion 😀

Once we got to the Gold Coast, we arrived at our new home for the real estates final inspection. And Joey’s first visit to the house. I was able to view the house on a trip to Brisbane I had last year before we put in our offer. I was a bit nervous for Joey to see the house, thinking what if he doesn’t like it? What if there is something that his builder mind notices that I didn’t see when I saw the house 🤯

Well, he saw it and he liked it, it was a bit different seeing the house with no furniture, the carpets were older than I remembered but all in all it already felt like home.

The carpets were still a bit damp from being cleaned the day before, so we decided to set our mattress up on the wooden dining room floor. We then pretty quickly decided to replace the carpets so we camped out on the dining room floor for a week and a half.

We slowly started shopping for big items we needed, mainly a lounge and a new bed. It was then that we were quickly met with wait times of up to 16 weeks. That’s 4 months was my response to one sales lady 😲

I had expected to come across some wait times for furniture because I have experienced this in the past. But 4 months seemed a bit crazy. Most places we visited explained that the extended wait was due to this corona virus that was only just making an appearance back then because most stock was coming from China. We shopped around and Joey did some of his best bargaining and we managed to get beds and a longe within two weeks. We got a lounge that was floor stock and beds that were available in Australian warehouses. The longest wait we had was for our dining table, which arrived late last week. Thank goodness for camp chairs and one of our camp tables from our trip 🤗

The carpet transformation from old to new!

A few photos of our new house to finish off, and I am planning to post regularly over the next few months, sharing some of the photos from our trip that were not seen here originally throughout last years travels.